You most likely have lots of stories you know and want to share about $hit that happens on wall $t, but the same thing happens between public employee union members and politicians.
Recall the before SD made the national news headlines that we had a groper for a mayor (who was forced to resign), there was a similar pervert problem w/in the SDPD. Seem there is an “old boys club” attitude, because the reporter from the “reader” stated:
It was surprising to see the lengths that the City Attorney’s office went to try and get this case dismissed.
I’ve mentioned many times that there are multiple entities who will attempt to use politicians to get what they want. From unions, to RE developers, to private govt contractors, to special interest groups of various sorts, to “taxpayer advocates,” to retired citizens with too much time on their hands who want the city/state/country to look or feel a particular way, to corporations looking for tax credits or special infrastructure, etc., etc. (The fact that all of the attention has been focused on labor will be addressed in a different post.)
Filner was an elected official who had a definite problem with women. No excuse for that. And he’s gone.
The cop with the groping problem is also gone…in jail. Nobody with any brains or morals will try to justify his behavior. The reason the city had to defend him (and look into the character of the main victim/witness) was because the city is on the hook if he’s convicted. So far, they’ve had to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to at least one victim. This is why public agencies screen their potential employees so thoroughly (and, yes, some bad ones will still manage to slip through the cracks). It’s why they don’t want to lose the good ones. A public agency is viewed as a very deep pocket. People often file fraudulent lawsuits against public employers, so every accusation has to be investigated thoroughly.
This isn’t so much about the “old boys’ club” as it is about liability…though it does look like the PD had him return to work when he absolutely should not have been working, and that’s a problem…but then, people would be complaining that he was being “paid not to work” while he was being investigated.
